AML regulation (AMLR) for lawyers, accountants and TCSPs

Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 names auditors, external accountants and tax advisors; notaries, lawyers and other independent legal professionals; and trust or company service providers as obliged entities. For lawyers and notaries, the Regulation applies when they take part in listed transactions, for instance property or business sales, handling client assets, opening accounts, funding companies or setting up trusts and similar structures. Ordinary advice sits outside that list.

What the Regulation says about reporting

Article 69 sets the general duty to report suspicion to the FIU. Article 70 gives these professionals two adjustments. Member States may let them report to a self-regulatory body that forwards the report to the FIU without filtering. And they are exempt from reporting information received while assessing a client’s legal position or defending or representing the client in proceedings. The exemption falls away if the professional takes part in money laundering, gives advice for that purpose or knows the client wants advice for it.

That is narrower than the general sense of privilege. A lawyer who sets up a company structure for a client is within the transactional scope, and that work is not “defending the client”.

Who counts as the customer

Article 19(6) says that for notaries, lawyers and other independent legal professionals, both parties to a transaction are customers where the professional is the only one intermediating it. For a share sale handled by a single firm, that means identifying the buyer and the seller.

Beneficial ownership and trusts

Article 58 deals with identifying beneficial owners of express trusts and similar arrangements: settlors, trustees, protectors, beneficiaries and anyone else who ultimately controls the trust. A TCSP with trust clients should check how its files record each role.

A practitioner view

Small firms often assume the legal-advice carve-out covers everything they do. It does not. Use a simple test for each file: is this advice on the client’s legal position, or are we carrying out the transaction? The second kind falls under the AMLR in full.

What this means for you

Sort your instructions into the two buckets, then check that your reporting route is clear. In Malta the FIAU is the point of contact. Tell us your practice mix through the enquiry form, or schedule a no-obligation call. Related: AMLR in the EU, the Malta view.

General information, not legal advice.

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